ethernet question

[mad hampster]

I am thinking of getting a USB Ethernet card, my main concern is if it will be too slow, can anyone give me some opinions/advice?

[brandon184]

I would reccomend getting a PCI or even ISA Ethernet card...

As far as getting a USB ethernet card, I wouldn't be worry about the transfer rate over USB.. It most likely exceeds that of what will be incoming/outgoing in the ethernet card. Although I am not sure of the transfer rates of USB.

- Brandon

[Mungla]

As far as my knowledge, USB transfers data at 10 megabits/sec. If you are transfering files via two computers at 10 megabits, then you will take bandwidth from other USB devices. Typical Ethernet is 10BASET, which is 10 megabits/sec. Get a PCI Ethernet card, you can find resonably priced cards that are sometimes even dual speed. As far as my experience goes, I have had good luck with Trendnet products. They are low cost, low profile cards that work extremely well. You can get a nice dual speed Trendnet card for around $30; I got two from Egghead on an auction for $5 apiece (not bad!).

[mad hampster]

If the USB is the same speed as PCI, what are the drawbacks? SOrry for the stupid questions i just have no experience with all this networking stuff.

[brandon184]

It would just hog your "usb resources" so to speak.

Your PCI slot could easily handle the bandwidth associated with an ethernet card, and wouldn't be slowing anything else down..

- Brandon

[Jeff7]

PCI network - not ISA. The IRQ sharing capability comes in really handy sometimes, especially if you have a system loaded with stuff. My last computer had the following on IRQ 11: USB, video, TV tuner, and the network; I think that was all. And it didn't crash too often, considering...

[howste]

Go for a 10/100 card. The cost isn't that much different from a 10 megabit/sec card, and depending on what your network is capable of, you get 10 times the throughput. Also, it'll save you the cost of an upgrade later.

Steve